Bailing out the Bikes

We all knew that the price of the bankers bailout bill was a lot of unrelated pork, so that individual congressmen could not mention having voted for it, but crow about their own piece of pork, but whose idea was this?

The massive financial bailout law signed by President Bush in October adds a bicycle commuting reimbursement to the list of IRS qualified transportation fringe benefits.

Yessiree, if you pedal your butt into work, semi-regularly, you qualify for a break on your taxes:

The reimbursement will cover the purchase of a bicycle and the cost of improvements, repair, and storage if the bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employees residence and place of employment. The bicycle must be used for a substantial portion of the employees commuting.

The bonus, $20/month to a maximum of $240, for me won't even cover my band-aid bills. Frankly, I think I'd be far better off to junk the bike and switch to motorcycles, exclusively.
If you buy your bike at Wal-Mart, you could have some cash left over from this to buy a light set, and thermal spandex to use in the winter.